WHERE'S THE EVIDENCE?

REDUCING crime and its pernicious effect on neighbourhoods is tough.

It requires a sophisticated strategy to take on criminals in their
neighbourhoods to protect the innocent and to starve street gangs of
potential recruits by luring vulnerable youth into more productive
options. The provincial government yesterday announced it will give
Mayor Sam Katz $2 million to help keep 45 police officers on the
streets of high-crime areas. The investment to keep Operation Clean
Sweep going assumes that the program will reduce crime.

How much "Clean Sweep" will help to cut crime is unknown.

The city assigned 45 officers to Winnipeg's West End in late October
in the wake of a gang-related shooting death of a young man believed
to be an innocent bystander. Those officers are assigned to patrol
around the clock and the cost, as of mid-February, was said to be $1.6 million.

The $2 million, to be raised through higher provincial fines and
surcharges on provincial offences, municipal bylaws and federal
tickets, will help share the cost of making this unit permanent; how
the city can afford to expand the program into other areas was not explained.

Chief Jack Ewatski has pumped out monthly reports of the "success" of
Clean Sweep, tallying the number of weapons and firearms, drug
charges, arrests and vehicle stops the officers have made. But his
statistics -- 43 illegal weapons; 658 arrests -- are weak without
some comparison of what was swept up in the West End prior to the
program's advent.

Further, Winnipeggers may be more convinced that 658 arrests is
progress when they know the outcome of the charges, whether they
resulted in convictions or the detention of those wanted on warrant.

To date, the police service and Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh have
used anecdotal evidence to bolster their claims to having reduced
crime in the West End. Reliable evidence will not be available until
the presence and work of officers there has been felt over time,
allowing for year-over-year statistics to reveal trends.

The Winnipeg Police Service has successfully wrestled more money from
city hall to pay for additional officers and staff, pointing to the
increased number of calls they field.

Last week, the mayor's office revealed the city struck a deal to pay
officers wage increases of 3.5 per cent in each of two years in
exchange for senior officers giving up their 9-to-5 shifts for flexible hours.

The city said this result in savings in chronic overtime expense
(immediately, $260,000) but it had already added $3.5 million for
overtime pay in its operating budget.

Sam Katz and Gord Mackintosh know there is political currency in
public avowals to "crack down" on organized crime and street gangs
and, doubtless, residents in areas plagued by crime are happy to see
officers patrolling. There ought to be a reliable assessment of the
"success" of Operation Clean Sweep. That should be done before the
politicians decide to spend more money to expand this experiment into
other neighbourhoods.